Fort Vancouver High School alum Katie Brown, the 2014 Washington Teacher of the Year, took time to answer a few questions about her path to working in education. Plus, learn about Julie Pagel, the Fort teacher who inspired Brown.

Three-time Olympian Kara Winger (formerly Patterson) has spent half of her lifetime throwing the javelin, from her days at Skyview High School to her recent Olympic showing in Rio de Janeiro, where she narrowly missed qualifying for the final round.

Washington State University Vancouver student Adriana Benitez stood in front of teacher Katherine Howard’s fifth-grade class at King Elementary. “How many of you are excited to go to college?” she asked.

PE and art teacher Marshall Elementary School Years with VPS: 24 One thing I’ve learned: That when students believe they can be successful, they are. I create a positive learning environment by personally having an [...]

Teacher Kendra Yamamoto guided Saul’s hands across a table coated with shaving cream. “Mira, mira,” she said in Spanish. With her palm atop the boy’s fist, she maneuvered his index finger through a lathery curl.

Columbia River High School English and AVID teacher Years with VPS: 28.5 Most memorable career experiences: Seeing my 21 Advancement Via Individual Determination students graduate in June 2015. They were the first AVID class at River. I started with them as freshmen. By [...]

Vancouver iTech Preparatory math teacher Years with VPS: 8 Most memorable career experience: Starting out in Vancouver at then–Lewis and Clark [High School]. First time with alternative education and the realities that some of our students had to bear was an eyeopener.(Editor’s note: Lewis and [...]

Instructional technology facilitator Years with VPS: 23 Most memorable career experiences: Seeing the progression of technology since I started as a student at Peter S. Ogden Elementary in 1980. I started with the first Apple [...]

Hudson’s Bay High School teacher Years with VPS: 28 Most memorable career experiences: Winning the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national competition in 2015, being selected the VPS High School Teacher of the Year in the [...]

Fort Vancouver High School Culinary Arts teacher Years with VPS: 17 Most memorable career experience: While VPS was building the Jim Parsley Education, Family and Community Center, I had the opportunity to work with George [...]

Franklin Elementary second-grade teacher Years with VPS: 2 Most memorable career experience: Useful and appropriate Mandarin materials are hard to find. Last year, I decided to create a Chinese Pinyin dictionary with high-frequency words. On [...]

Minnehaha Elementary School counselor Years with VPS: 13 Most memorable career experience: A couple of years ago, a former student came back to visit. He was going to graduate and wanted to make sure that [...]